The second tallest skyscraper in the world is located in Liuhiazui, Pudong, Shanghai and is known as the Shanghai Tower. 632 meters high and designed by Gensler, it started to be constructed at the end of 2008 and was completed by 2015. Thanks to its unique architectural style, it stands out from all other skyscrapers because it is twisted- a recent trend in the layout of tall buildings-.

A London-based architecture firm says it can eliminate the shadows that buildings cast over urban areas starved of sunlight. The firm devised a plan to build paired skyscrapers in such a way that sunlight reflected by one fills in the shadow of the other. Thought the shadow of the reflecting building would remain, calculations show that the concept would reduce the total amount of shade produced by the buildings by up to 60 percent, according to the NBBJ firm.

According to project handlers the 1km-high Kingdom Tower, “has challenged mankind to outdo himself”! It is also the view of Dr. Hisham Jonah, chief development officer of Jeddah Economic City, whether it is really possible to build even higher in the future. The skyscraper will have 252 floors overall, 167 of which will be occupied. It will also have the world’s highest observation deck. The actual tower will start at 20 meters above the ground floor with the largest floor being an 85,000-m2 parking lot that will house 2,200 cars. At 6,700-m2, the footprint of the structure will be divided into three different entrances for the hotel, residences and offices.

“You hear from Qatar, Azerbaijan and the Emirates that there are plans for towers that are 1.3, 1.5 and 1.6 km high. I wonder how they will reach that,” asked Jomah.

One of the largest problems, according to Jomah, was how to reach 167 floors in 1.6 minutes through the elevators.

Broad Sustainable Building, a construction company in China, recently built a 57-floor, 2-million-square-foot skyscraper in just 19 days. That is an average of three floors per day. The building has 19 10-meter-tall atriums, enough office space for 4000 people and 800 apartments. The structure is made up of prefabricated sections that reduced the use of concrete by 15,000 trucks, which translates into less dust released into the air.

The construction of an 1100-foot tall multi-use skyscraper is underway in downtown Los Angeles. At 2.1 million square feet and 73 stories tall the Wilshire Grand will be the tallest building west of the Mississippi River. While this is an impressive height, especially for L.A., it is dwarfed, worldwide, by roughly 40 structures. The majority of these buildings, around 34, exist outside of the U.S.

Deep Sea News recently posted an article about Godzilla’s increasing size through the years. The full article can be found here. The author of the post uses statistical analysis and some biological rules to conclude that Godzilla will be roughly 288 meters tall in the year 2050. Another blogger’s analysis from Wired led him to believe that Godzilla will be 170 meters tall in 2050. Either way, it seems that Godzilla has grown at an exceptional rate over the past 60 years since he first appeared as a 50-meter tall monster in 1954.